Senior Islamic bankers and international experts from more than 15 countries will convene in Bahrain later this month to discuss internationalisation strategies for Islamic financial institutions.

They will be participating in the "Roundtable Meeting of the Directors of Operations and Investment of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs)" organised by the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), headquartered in Bahrain and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

The two-day meeting will be held at the Le Meridien Hotel, City Centre Bahrain on February 23 and 24, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

A CIBAFI statement said it will provide a common platform for sharing best practices amongst industry experts and leaders in international operations, with participants from various Islamic financial institutions from more than 15 jurisdictions.

The line-up of industry experts and practitioners who are expected to participate includes: CIBAFI secretary general Abdelilah Belatik, IDB Islamic Financial Services Department director Ahmed Al Gebali, Kuwait Finance House Bahrain managing director and chief executive Abdulhakeem Al Khayyat, senior financial sector expert Carel Oosthuizen, Deloitte & Touche, Bahrain Islamic finance group director Hatim El Tahir, Strategy& partner Philipp Wackerbeck, International Islamic Marketing Association, Qatar chairman Baker Ahmad Abdullah Alserhan, Al Baraka Group first vice-president for strategic planning Ayman Ahmed Mohamed Abdalla, Trowers & Hamlins Middle East Islamic Finance head and partner Salman Ahmed, Islamic Trade Finance Corporation corporate and structured finance department general manager Nazeem Noordali, UK-based Darien Analytics founder Andrew Cunningham.

The key themes of the roundtable include: heterogeneity in Islamic finance development, Sharia and regulatory frameworks across different jurisdictions; key requirements for internationalisation, modes of entry, and strategies to achieve competitive positioning of foreign Islamic financial institutions; rebranding as an expansion strategy; cross-border Islamic syndicated financing; and trade financing for IFIs to boost global real-sector linkages to go mainstream. - TradeArabia News Service